Moses Lake | Stray Thoughts

Firefly Island is the third of four novels in Lisa Wingate’s Shores of Moses Lake series. This story doesn’t start there, however.

Mallory Hale is a congressional staffer in Washington, D. C. following in the footsteps of her lobbyist father, when she unexpectedly meets Daniel Webster Everson, a biochemist working for the USDA. After a whirlwind romance, Daniel is offered a job in tiny Moses Lake, Texas. He asks Mallory to marry him and move to Moses Lake with him and his four-year-old son, Nick.

Mallory agrees. She’s not sure kind of job a congressional staffer can find there, but she can’t live without Daniel and Nick.

A series of mishaps begins their married life in less than fairy-tale happily ever afters. The house provided with Daniel’s job has not been lived in and is infested with vermin. Daniel’s new boss, Jack, is taciturn and erratic. The small community seems to eye Jack warily.

Suddenly thrust into a new marriage, motherhood, and setting, Mallory struggles. She finds friendship with her cowgirl neighbor, Al, and a young teacher, Keren.

Mallory is suspicious of Jack. Rumors circulate about his possible involvement in the disappearance of his wife and son. He’s secretive to the point of paranoia about his business. When his politician older son, with whom he has not been involved with in years, comes to visit, more details don’t add up. Jacks’ old cabin on Firefly Island is supposedly deserted, yet there are strange boats moored there. Mallory’s search for information leads to tie-ins with her old job. Can Mallory find out what’s going on and bring it to light before a disaster happens?

If I had read this book first in the series, I probably would not have continued. It starts out like a romance novel with what seems to me a lot of silliness (does anyone say hubba hubba any more?) Though there are no explicit scenes, there are more references to the couple’s physical relationship than I care for. Then the plot seems to drag in the middle.

But the latter half of the novel comes together nicely with mystery and intrigue. I enjoyed the interactions with characters from the first two books.

Besides the adjustments with a new marriage and the mystery behind her husband’s boss, Mallory deals with interactions with the more disadvantaged section of Moses Lake. Mallory has been raised the sheltered youngest daughter of a comfortable family. When she takes Nick to a children’s activity and sees a lot of unkempt kids, she worries about lice and bad attitudes. But over time she gets to know the kids and their needs, sees them differently, and looks for ways to help. “Was I really so entrenched in the world I’d been raised in, so set in my ways that I couldn’t look beyond the surface of another person and see a human being? Was I that shallow?” (p. 214).

I also thought this was a sweet line after an encounter with Nick: “Watching him skitter away, I felt the process of loving and parting and holding on and letting go that would be our future together, his and mine” (p. 203).

So, while this wasn’t my favorite of Lisa’s books, I gained from it.

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Blue Moon Bay is the second novel is Lisa Wingate’s Shores of Moses Lake series, contemporary fiction set in a small town in Texas. The first was Larkspur Cove (linked to my review).

In Blue Moon Bay, Heather Hampton is an architect working in Seattle. Her father was from Moses Lake, but the family only lived there a short time when Heather was in her teens. She felt like an outcast at school and protested the family’s presence in Moses Lake by dressing somewhat Goth-style. Her mother wasn’t very popular in Moses Lake, either, since she stole away a hometown guy.

When Heather’s father died, Heather, her mother, and brother moved away as soon as they could. Heather never wanted to look back.

Now her firm is about to negotiate a big deal for an industrial plant in Moses Lake, with the sale of the family’s land as part of the deal. Heather’s two older great uncles (called the “Uncs”), have plans to move to live with one of their sons. Heather thinks this is the ideal solution to provide for the family, settle the land, and close the door to Moses Lake forever–as well as look good to her boss.

Everything is set, only awaiting her mother’s signature on the documents.

But her mother doesn’t show up for the appointment.

When Heather calls her mother, she gets vague references about considering another offer, which is total news to Heather. And what’s weirder is that her mom is actually in Moses Lake with Heather’s brother, Clay.

Since Heather can’t get any clear details on the phone, she decides to fly to Moses Lake. After a series of mishaps, she finally gets there. But she still can’t get any answers from anyone. And, mysteriously, Blaine Underwood, the handsome football hero of her high school days, is somehow involved.

I know a story needs conflict to have any kind of plot. But the kind of conflict here frustrated me. It’s supposed to, though–the main character is frustrated as well. Heather is more like her father, and her mother and brother are like each other. Her free-spirited mother gives ambiguous answers, getting Heather nowhere in figuring out what’s going on. The Uncs and Clay and Blaine are not much help, either.

Nevertheless, the story wraps up nicely in the end, including some edge-of-your-seat action. Then the reason for the lack of details becomes clear.

A subplot involves the Uncs’ former housekeeper, Ruth, the one person whom Heather had loved when she lived in Moses Lake. Ruth now has cancer, and Heather visits her several times, learning more of her Mennonite history and how she came to the US from Germany as a child. I had thought this was just an interesting side trail, but it ties into the main plot.

Like the first book in the series, this one opens each chapter with “Wall of Wisdom” quotes left by visitors at the Waterbird Bait and Grocery. Some characters from the first book show up there as well as in the story.

Even though I didn’t enjoy this book quite as much as the first, I did like how it came together in the end.

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